The Pau Golf Club, founded in 1856, is the oldest golf course on the continent and the fourth-oldest in the world outside Great Britain, after those of Charleston (United States, 1786), Calcutta (India, 1829), and Bombay (India, 1842).
History tells us that after the Napoleonic campaigns and the Battle of Orhez in February 1814, regiments of Wellington's army were stationed in Pau.
Among the officers, two of Scottish descent, who came with their golf equipment, were amazed by the beauty of the Billère plain, near Pau.
Some twenty years later, these same Scots returned, and one thing led to another, they were followed by an entire English colony that settled in Pau.
The golf course was to follow.
Today, it is part of Pau's sporting and historical heritage. A surprising and utterly British curiosity awaits golfers at the 10th tee. Indeed, there, on a teak bench, is a copper plaque reading "Les. H. Thornton, his favorite hole and his last resting place."
This "epitaph" belongs to a subject of Her Majesty who hanged himself after making a bad deal and who had requested that his ashes be scattered at the foot of the bench...
Pau Golf Club 1856
Rue du Golf,
64140 Billère.
Tel.: 05 59 13 18 56
www.paugolfclub.com
